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N.J. church shooting suspect captured
Man shoots three at N.J. church, flees
By Pauld Brubaker
Passaic County Herald News
North Jersey Media Group
PATERSON, N.J. — The man accused of a deadly shooting rampage at a Clifton church in November tried to take his own life at the Passaic County Jail on Tuesday, authorities said.
But the attorney representing Joseph Mathai Pallipurath said that it was too soon for anyone to determine whether his client was trying to kill himself or simply had a bad reaction to medication.
Passaic County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Bill Maer said that a preliminary investigation indicated that Pallipurath tried to kill himself in the special watch unit where he was held with 45 other inmates.
Pallipurath took a combination of prescription and nonprescription drugs, including aspirin, that he had hoarded, Maer said. A corrections officer found Pallipurath with vomit on his clothes at about 12:30 a.m.
The suspect was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, where he remained in stable condition on Tuesday.
Pallipurath faces murder, attempted murder and weapons charges connected to the Nov. 23 shooting at the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church on Third Street in Clifton that resulted in two people dead, including his estranged wife, and a third victim severely wounded.
The suspect has been on suicide watch at the jail since he was extradited from Georgia, and Maer said the department was prepared to respond to Tuesday’s incident.
“This was not a surprise,” Maer said. “The system worked.”
Moses V. Rambarran, Pallipurath’s attorney, disputed the reported suicide attempt, saying his client was brought to the hospital for medical treatment after he had a reaction to medication. He would not comment on why his client was taking medication.
“There is no evidence that he attempted to kill himself,” Rambarran said.
Mathai Pallipurath, the alleged shooter’s father, gasped when a reporter informed him that his son was in the hospital.
“Oh, my God,” said Pallipurath, when reached Tuesday morning at Tallac Bottle Shop, a Sacramento liquor store he owns.
Pallipurath said he had just traveled to New Jersey and visited his son at the jail Friday. The younger Pallipurath seemed in good health and mentally sound, he said.
“I was with him almost an hour,” Pallipurath said. “We were very happy.”
Rambarran added that the public perception that Pallipurath was unremorseful since he was arrested was false.
“The exact opposite is, in fact, true,” Rambarran said. “My client is remorseful with the burden on his family, the families of the victims and the victims.”
Many eyewitnesses at St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church on Third Street in Clifton on Nov. 23 said they saw Pallipurath enter the vestibule and shoot his estranged wife, Reshma James, 24, who died later that night.
Dennis John Malloosseril, 25, who attempted to intervene to help James, also died after being shot.
Silvy Perincheril, 48, was severely wounded and was in a medically induced coma for weeks at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. Just after Christmas, Perincheril awoke and she was transferred to Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in West Orange last Thursday, said her eldest son, Jacob, 22.
Police say Pallipurath drove from Sacramento, Calif., to Passaic County to find James, who came to live in Hawthorne with Perincheril, her cousin, after Pallipurath had become abusive.
After the shooting, Pallipurath ditched his green 2004 Jeep Wrangler and the firearms in a public parking lot a few blocks from the church, took a taxicab to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City, and boarded a bus to Georgia, according to authorities.
A nationwide manhunt tracked down Pallipurath a day later at a motor inn in Monroe, Ga., a small town 50 miles outside of Atlanta, where he surrendered to police. Within days, he was extradited back to New Jersey and put under suicide watch at the Passaic County Jail.
Since then, Pallipurath has been calm and lucid, according to Maer.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Latoracca, who is in charge of homicide cases for the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office, said that the incident on Tuesday would have no bearing on Pallipurath’s case.
On Dec. 5, Pallipurath pleaded not guilty in a state Superior Court to two counts of murder, one count of attempted murder and weapons charges. He has not yet been indicted.
Family of the shooting victims were also shocked to learn about the attempted suicide.
Joseph “Jim” Joseph, James’ first-cousin from Connecticut, said hundreds of people attended the woman’s funeral last month in Kerala, a southern Indian state and the center of the Knanaya religion. Her parents are still grieving their daughter’s death, said Joseph, who said he talks to the family most weekends.
“He is feeling guilty. That’s why he tried to do that,” Joseph said.
Copyright 2009 North Jersey Media Group Inc.